Richard William Barnett is an American artist who earned a Finalist Place in the 3rd Edition of the Boynes Emerging Artist Award.

What inspired you to begin creating art?

Like many children, most of my exposure to art and drawing came from comic books. I was fortunate enough to live right outside Washington DC, so access to the Smithsonian exposed me to real painting and artwork, but I was intimately aware of all the artists, inkers and colorists involved in the comics and pulps of the 70’s. Most people think of comic books as rather simple line art, but in the 1970’s artist like Neal Adams, Bernie Wrightson and painters like Boris Vallejo and Frank Frazetta changed that forever. POP art and editorial illustration and painting shattered that separation forever and paved the way for me to think of art with a much wider view. I loved the comfort with the figure that early fascination with comics gave me, but when I discovered John Singer Sargent, it was over. It was at that time that my determination to be a figurative painter was fixed in my mind for life. That continues to be my goal. I want to be the best figurative painter I can be and tell the stories of my own life and the world around me. I want to continue the tradition of portraying life as it is that the Impressionists started.

Can you describe your artistic journey so far?

I completed 3 years of college at Roanoke College without any really focus, drive or actual idea what I was doing. After a few rather pointed discussions with family I joined the Navy to get away from home and attempt to grow up a bit. It worked to some degree. After my first 4 year enlistment I left the Navy with a better idea of what I wanted to do with my life, and with what ended up being a rather half-assed plan. With $600 in my pocket and a willingness to incur student loan debt, I headed to New York to attend The School of Visual Arts. It is something of a miracle that I lasted almost 2 years before life blew up in my face. New York is not terribly well known for tolerating fools lightly.Being broke and a few weeks from being without a roof over my head, I went back to the Navy and a regular paycheck from the US Government as a Hospital Corpsman (medic). I completed another 17 years of military service around the world, my last 8 years of service with the US Marines, both in and out of combat, retiring in 2005. I never stopped drawing and painting, but somewhere along the line I realized there wasn’t a chance in hell that I would ever be able to support myself that way. Up until the pandemic I worked as a bedside RN. I left that position in March when the hospital I worked at ignored their own policies, would not provide appropriate PPE to work in that environment and 8 nurses and doctors were exposed to active COVID in close quarters without protection. There are members of my family with health issues that would put them at high risk with exposure. SO I find myself, inwhat might end up being forced, retirement, working in my studio every day.

What inspires your work now?

Up until recently it had been movement of the figure and the world around me as seen through my own experiences. That has changed in the last 4 years. Shortly after the 2016 US election and the women’s march that responded to it, I started the first of a series of work on the crowds involved in protests. There was something about the group focus that groups like that have that comes through in any image taken of them. I wanted to see if I could capture some of that on canvas. I also felt a crying need to say something about what was happening in my country, and my paintings became my voice. As one year became two, and now four, my fascination with crowds and groups continues, but not all crowds are the same and I am exploring that as well

What mediums do you work in and experiment with?

Currently I work in oil. I used to primarily work in pastel and a lot of that can still be seen in the way I make marks using paint.I played with a couple of paintings where I was working oil over opaque watercolor, but it never really worked out the way I wanted it to, so I put that aside for the moment.

Are there any particular brands of art supplies you prefer using (if so why)?

Personally I like Gamblin oil paints because I think they have the strongest concentration of pigment in a price I can afford. Generally use Princeton flats, rounds and filberts but there is a local brush-maker I am growing fond of Rosemary and Co. I was really drifting towards them before the pandemic and I went back to the Princeton brushed because they are easier to find online and have shipped.

Do you have any particular ways that you work through a creative block?

I don’t really get creative blocks anymore. I do fight with chemical depression, but that just drains my motivation, energy and confidence. I have more images and concept pieces planned or started than I will be able to finish in my remaining lifetime. I have the problem of coming up with an idea and having to stop and plan it out, or sketch it out before I lose it, then I have to stick it in the pile of stuff that I will get to when I can...

Can you give any piece of advice to your fellow artists?

Success in making art is rarely just about inane talent. It’s mostly about hard work, thousands of hours making marks on paper, canvas and panel. Trying to learn something from countless failed ideas and projects. I can’t tell you the number of pieces I have discarded or painted over to only start again, sometimes with pieces I have more than 100 hours invested in. Unless you are insanely lucky in addition to being good, it is almost impossible to be able to make a living solely off your artwork. About the odds of becoming a successful recording artist or professional athlete from what I understand, so do your work because it’s what you want to do. If you can manage that, fear of failure becomes a non-issue because every moment you spend on your work will be done doing something you love.It is inevitable that we will measure ourselves against each other, but that has a lot less impact if you realize, win, lose or draw, you are doing what you want to do.

How do you manage the need for perfection within your work?

I read how someone else answered a similar question and kind of took it to heart. Your work is never going to be perfect, you will always be able to see something more to do, the secret to figuring out whether you are done or not is deciding whether the things you want to change will improve the painting. If not… well you are done.

How do you process/come to terms with and even use other people's opinion of your work?

I suffer from clinical depression and I used to live and die by how my work was received. Now I try to live by what I said above, no matter how it is received, I spent my time doing what I wanted to do and that has to be enough. I did the best I could with that particular project and I will try to do better with the next one.

Are there artists who inspire you creatively?

Literally every figurative painter that I think is better or more clever or more imaginative than I am. I follow more than 1000 of them on Instagram alone.

To view more of Richard Barnett’s work

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